


Hello Alice

by xXOcsForTheWinXx



Category: Portal (Video Game), Portal 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Alice in Wonderland References, Blue Sky (Portal), Blue Sky AU, Blue Sky Gave Me Feels and This Happened, Eaden and Friends, Everything is the same except Chell and Wheatley just stay friends, F/M, Foxglove, I'm Sorry Waffles, Slow To Update
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-13
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-05-02 12:36:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 5,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19198951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xXOcsForTheWinXx/pseuds/xXOcsForTheWinXx
Summary: Wheatley has been in his human body for about a year. He's still living with Chell in Eaden and things are great, but he's been having dreams about that place. Not too unusual, it was traumatizing, it makes sense. But it's not just that place, there's someone there, someone who won't stop calling him Alice. Someone so eerily familiar, but he can't place where he's seen her. Still, each time he's sees her he finds himself chasing after that red coat. Running headfirst further and further into this rabbit hole. But it's no big deal, they're just dreams right?He's wrong, even if he doesn't know it, and his mysterious stranger may be running out of time."I'm different..."..."The rabbit is waiting for Alice to return to Wonderland. The Queen of Hearts will find the Rabbit. This time Alice is running late."





	1. Down the Rabbit Hole

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wafflestories](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=wafflestories).
  * Inspired by [Blue Sky](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/62421) by wafflestories. 



> This is my first time writing here, as you may or may not know, there are multiple people who might use this account, so I'm Tigerlilly49. This fanfic in particular was inspired by wafflestories's fanfic by the name of Blue Sky. I may have come to it a little late *loud coughing* seven years late *continued coughing*, but I came to the Portal fandom a little late, like most fandom's I come to. It is a lovely Portal fanfiction that is 15 chapters long, I read it and I loved it. In fact it was so good I was unsure of what to do with myself for the next few hours, or maybe a day. But in all seriousness, I would totally recommend it for any Portal fan who thought Wheatley's end was a little too harsh or just want a continuation of the Portal series. It's on fanfiction.net as well as Tumblr and I think one other format, maybe LC, but I can't remember.
> 
> Either way please enjoy this and I apologize ahead of time for any spelling and/or grammar mistakes.

    Wheatley’s dreams had started slowly. The first one about six months after getting his human body. Having learned about dreams from Chell and various books shortly after, he assumed it was a just eccentricity of his human brain. He, like so many times before, was wrong.

~~~

    The first one had been short, incredibly short in comparison with some that followed. He had been standing in a field of golden wheat stretching out as far as he could see, not too unusual with the large fields surrounding the town of Eaden, so he didn’t realize it was a dream _-”Most dreams seem perfectly normal, even in the strangest of circumstances. I mean even impossible circumstances, like in the one I had. Funny isn’t it?” he later told Chell, mostly in an attempt to reassure himself-_ but of course we’re getting off topic. So there Wheatley was, in the golden wheat field that reached his waist, warm, early morning summer sun _-Nevermind that it had been Autumn when he fell asleep-_ shining down on his pale skin from a clear blue sky. It was calming.

 

    Then he saw her, not too far off. A woman with pale skin and long ponytailed hair that seemed to change from blonde to a light brown as she tilted her head, flashing red for a moment as the sun shone off of it just right. She stood there, seeming just as surprised as he was, if only for a moment, just a moment before she smirked softly at him. She proceeded to look him up and down, and Wheatley took this moment to do the same. This, this was when he noticed the lab coat, which took him a second to identify because instead of stark white, like most lab coats tend to be, it was a bright red, contrasting against the wheat and sky around her. _How he hadn’t noticed it before, contrasting like that, was a wonder in itself._ It was only a second later he noticed the logo, two words sewn into the coat over her left breast in pretty cursive letters, a semi-circle surrounding the end, they were two words that made his blood run cold: Aperture Science.

 

    It was those two words that sent Wheatley flying up in a frenzied pile of long limbs. Sent him scrambling to his feet and down the hall to Chell’s room. Shaking her awake and pulling her into his arms as if she'd disappear if he let go he began to ramble incessantly. Once she managed to get to the root of the problem, underneath his rantings about wheat fields and summer and a woman and how 'Everything was fine at first!', she began to talk. Her sleepy, short, yet reassuring explanation that dreams weren’t necessarily memories or in any way real had calmed him from the point of panicked rambling to bashful apologies and embarrassed mumblings. That woman, whoever she was or might have been, was probably not real and if she was, she was likely long gone by now.

 

He still slept in her room that night, just a little too afraid of what might happen if he fell asleep on his own. He did eventually fall asleep crammed against the wall, _-comforting-_ with Chell running her fingers through his hair, a sensation which also seemed eerily familiar in the moment, but not unwelcome. He didn’t dream of her again that night, then again he never did get more then one of those dreams in one night did he?

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter nervous jitters. *Brrr* Anyway I hope you enjoy this and Waffles, if you're reading this. I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. My mind takes an idea, runs off with it, gets distracted by a passing thought and takes the idea with it, sees this idea in a new environment, gets another idea and repeats the process seven times until it finally decides that this idea, that has been dragged through 7 different scenarios and fandoms and what-have-you, must be written. The idea my brain dragged around for a joyride into Wonderland just happened to be inspired by Blue Sky.


	2. I'm Different

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second Chapter!!! Whoo! I have chapter 3 in the works and I would like to get it out by Friday next week at the latest, but I have college pre-cal, so we'll have to see. It's turning out to be considerably longer than these first two, so I'm excited for that. Anyways, talk to you later!

Now Garret Rickey was a man of sense, he knew when someone was more experienced than him and he knew that he should listen to said people with more experience. In ‘that place’, as Chell referred to it, Chell had more experience and he respected her opinion on the singing turret and how he should  _ not _ take it with him. However, Garret Rickey was also a man of science, he saw things and he had to know how they worked, and sometimes science overrode his sense. He took the turret with him. He examined it first of course, opening the sides and finding there weren’t any bullets, he deemed it safe enough. Chell wasn’t happy about it, anything made in that place definitely had the ability to be dangerous, but she begrudgingly accepted his choice to take the thing. If there were no bullets the biggest danger it possessed was gone.

 

After that he put the turret in his shed. There he spent a day or two looking through its code. Most of it was fairly straight forward, nothing nearly as complicated as Wheatley’s hard light body, everything one would expect a turret to have. There were some strange functions that Garret had to wonder about, but he chalked it up to just being part of ‘that place’. It didn’t really talk much after that, it would say ‘Hello’ when he walked in and ‘Goodnight’ when he walked out and it would ask if he was there if he lingered behind the shelves in the back for more than forty seconds, but it didn’t do much else.

 

Today wouldn’t be any different. Garret walked into the shed, one of Foxglove’s satellites was having a hard time turning. He had crossed through the small space, grabbed what he needed and was on his way out when he noticed it. The turret had been silent. He glanced to it, it could have ran out of power, but there it was, staring silently at him, laser flicking between him and the wall behind.

 

“I’m different.” it said in a hushed tone. Garret turned to look fully at the turret before glancing outside.

 

“Alice remembers the rabbit.”

 

“What?”

 

“Wonderland is beneath us.”

 

Garret looked around again, the turret had never done this before. “The rabbit saw Alice once.” The turret seemed to look Garret in the eye before its gaze shifted back to the wall. It gave a half hum. “It’s going to rain.”

 

“Uh huh, sure…” Garret mumbled, gripping the part tighter in his hand. He stared at the turret for awhile, but it didn’t seem to have anything else to say. He turned and walked out the door, shutting it behind him. Shaking off the strange feeling he made his way towards Foxglove, he’d look at the turret later.

 

The turret turned its eye towards the now closed door. “Wonderland will leave its side of the mirror.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! If you liked it I would really appreciate if you'd let me know either through kudos or comments. Chapter 3 coming out as soon as I can manage. Have a wonderful rest of your day. Bye!


	3. Meeting Alice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back and Chapter 3 is out right on time baby! I really enjoyed writing this chapter, so I hope you really enjoy reading it. I'll see if I can get the next chapter out by next Friday, but we'll see.

It was months before Wheatley managed to not immediately scare himself out of those dreams, always lurching forward the minute his eyes landed on that red coat. Then one time he didn’t.

 

Wheatley stood in a golden wheat field under clear blue skies. It occurred faintly to him that this was a dream, but the notion faded as soon as it came. Then he saw her, for the first time her back was turned. He swallowed, starting to back away.

 

“You’re Alice aren’t you?”

 

“Excuse me, what?”

 

“Alice. You are Alice, yes?”

 

“Um… Well actually, no, I’m not. My name’s Wheatley.”

 

She turned towards him. “Don’t be silly, everyone knows you’re Alice.” She chuckled. “I’m pretty sure I’m not Alice. Actually I’m one-hundred, wait no, two-hundred percent sure I’m not Alice. My name is the same as it was two minutes ago, yup, still Wheatley.” The woman smiled at him and gave an amused eye-roll.  _ She has pretty eyes, she does, like a green-gold color. _

 

She gave a sudden start. “Shit, what time is it?!” She fumbled around in her lab coat, finally pulling out a pocket watch, which she opened only to grimace at the time. “I got to go, I’m running late. If the Queen has to wait any longer she’ll have my head for sure.”

 

The woman whirled around, but glanced back at Wheatley, grinning. “See you around Alice.” She looked forwards again and took off full speed, red lab coat billowing behind her.

 

“Wait! Where are you going?!” Wheatley chased after her, despite having longer legs -“I know you’re busy but,”- he kept tripping over himself and he almost fell flat on his face as he chased her over a hill. “could you just wait up a minute!” He called. When he made it over the woman was nowhere to be seen, there was just a large hole in the ground that seemed to go down for a very long distance. He approached it cautiously, glancing down the sides he recoiled. The walls were the panels from  _ that place _ . 

 

“She wouldn’t have gone down there would she? I mean, sure she had the logo, but only a real loony would willingly go down there now…” Wheatley paced by the hole for a minute. “But that has to be where she’s gone, doesn’t it? There’s nowhere else.” He glanced around again. “Maybe she fell down… But she probably would have screamed, most people scream when they find themselves falling suddenly into holes.”

 

He paused. “I don’t want to go back, even I miss the familiarity from time to time I’d have to be insane to actually go back into that bloody hell hole.”

 

But he couldn’t just leave her down there, not with Her… “If I went back and got Chell we could go down there together... Yeah, I’ll just pop off back to Eaden, grab Chell and bring her back here.” He looked up. 

 

“Where is Eaden from here? Actually, even if I knew, it might be too late by the time I get back, ooh, didn’t think of that at first.” He glanced back at the hole, but how would he get down there, how did she get down there? Those panels looked extremely smooth and he couldn’t see the bottom. “I mean, maybe she’s already dead. Wouldn’t make sense to go after a dead person… But of course she could always be alive and, and if she is I can’t just leave her.”

 

Wheatley took a step back, tripping over something as he went. “Gah!? What’s that?” He sat up looking at the offending object. “Bloody long fall boots. When did they get there?” He muttered, staggering to his feet. His eyes widened. “That’s it! Long fall boots! Brilliant!” he grabbed the boots, slipping off his own shoes he pulled them on. He took a few cautious steps in them and jumped once, just to be sure. “Yep, long fall boots. I guess… Now all I have to do is jump.” He peered down the hole.

 

“On Three… Okay, one… two… Three!”

 

“Oh I really don’t want to do this.” He looked up from the hole once more. ”But someone has to and there’s no one here but me.” He glanced around again to make sure. “Yup, just me. Just me and this here hole.” He stood there for a moment, just standing in the long fall boots. He knew if he tried the count down again he’d end up scaring himself out of this all together and that woman in the red coat  _ -he really needed to come up with a name for her- _ would probably die a horrible, gruesome death. Like he might if he went down there, but Caroline did say that She was now confined to the test chambers, right? So it had to be a lot safer than the place he and Chell escaped from about a year ago.

 

“Right, no count down. Just back up a few steps, run and jump in. Simple really, Chell did it all the time, just good ol’ human balance.” Wheatley muttered taking several steps back. Deep breath, one foot pounding in front of the other and- “No, no! I’ve changed my mind! I’ve changed my MIND!” -going too fast to stop he leaped over the edge and into the pit below. Screaming. Loudly.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you guys enjoy this as much as I do and if you do please let me know through either kudos or comments. They really mean a lot to me. Anyways have a wonderful rest of your day and see you next Friday. Hopefully.


	4. A Conversation with a Communications Master

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's out on time! Barely... But still! It's still Friday where I'm at. I would actually like to take this time to tell you how I'm posting chapters on this story. I have to be honest, I tend to fall into the folly of many fanfic writers, losing interest in a story and then leaving it unfinished forever. To battle this I have started a new strategy. I really, really enjoy posting chapters, I do, so to keep me motivated on writing this story I have set a restriction on myself: I can not post a chapter until the next chapter has been written, checked, and then re-read at least a day later. This, so far has kept my interest in this story going because I'll write a chapter, then really want to post it, but then I'll have to wait until I write the next one, even if I'm unsure of where exactly I want to go next. So here's to hoping I can keep my schedule of Friday updates!

Wheatley flew down the hole and then -THUMP!- he was staring at the ceiling, breathing quickly in an attempt to catch his breath. He patted at his chest to make sure that his lungs hadn’t actually been pushed into the mattress below. His lungs, in fact, hadn’t.

 

He took a moment to sit up, putting on his glasses with shaky hands he looked around the room almost as if he was checking it was still there.  _ He was. _ He sat like that for a while before he finally swung his feet over the side. The cool surface of the floor made him curl his toes as he crossed the room to the window.  _ He was still here. _ Outside he could see the sun barely up on the horizon, Foxglove, the giant communications tower, a silhouette against the morning sky.

 

He quickly turned to get dressed, it was early, sure, but it wasn’t like he would get back to sleep anytime soon and sitting in bed staring at the ceiling didn’t seem to be very appealing right now. He pulled on a sweater and jeans, shoved on some socks and managed to make it downstairs without knocking everything on the table in the hall onto the floor. Downstairs he made himself a cup of tea, just earl grey with a leveled spoon of sugar in it, but as he stared at the cup in his hands he got the sudden urge to put just a little bit a milk in it, not much. He was confused, of course he’d had it before, he wasn’t a huge fan of it, wasn’t particularly bad, but it wasn’t particularly good either, so why did he want to put some in now?

 

After a moment of staring he shrugged it off and grabbed the milk, it was probably nothing. Standing there in the kitchen he thought about getting a cup for Chell as well, but he realized it would be cold long before she came down to get it, so he sat down at the table at sipped his tea alone. It didn’t take him long to finish, definitely not long enough for anyone else to be awake, so he stood up and tugged on his jacket,  _ Chell was always reminding him of that _ , and slipped on his shoes. He was going on a walk. Where? He didn’t know, there were no stores open at this hour in Eaden and even if there was, there was nothing Wheatley wanted to buy.

 

So Wheatley strolled through the sleeping town, listening to those insects that made constant background noise, crickets, that’s what they’re called he reminded himself, crickets. He strolled aimlessly for awhile until he finally found himself at Foxglove’s gigantic feet. Though he could no longer speak directly to the giant device he liked to talk to her anyway, he once had Garret sign in under his admin so that she knew he was still alive, and since she knew when Garret had been kidnapped he figured she at least knew he was there. 

 

“Hey Fox.” Wheatley muttered softly as he touched the cool metal of one of her legs. “Sorry I haven’t come around much lately, had a lot on my mind.  _ Have _ a lot on my mind, I still do.” He began to climb Foxglove’s hodge-podge ladder, still managing to slip twice on his way up despite having done it time and time again over the past year.

 

“It’s just, I’ve been having these dreams lately. About this woman, lady. Not Chell, just so you know. This woman in a red lab coat, I really need to find a name for her.” His eyebrows scrunched together as he thought. “How about Red? No, no, that sounds like a guy’s name. Um… Something to do with red… Uhh… Ruby, sure, why not?” He shrugged and sat in silence for a moment. “So this lady, Ruby, she’s from that place, you know, the one I had you send me to, but she’s only in my head. Probably anyways. But I keep having her in my dreams, you know? I suppose you wouldn’t, you don’t really sleep…” 

 

Wheatley scratched the back of his head. “But Ruby is really familiar and I don’t know whether she’s real, which is strange, but I keep having the same dream with her in it and I don’t know why. Human brains are so confusing, there’s no manual that says ‘Oh this is how this works and this is why’ like in robots.” He looked up, where he imagined Fox’s omnipresent conscious to be. “Though I suppose you didn’t come with a manual did you? Do have any advice on that? The whole what to do when you don’t have instructions bit. I mean, I guess even if you did you couldn’t tell me.” He sighed, looking to the horizon as the still rising sun started to warm the chilled winter air. “I guess I better be off. Chell will wake up sometime and I really don’t want to explain why I went on a walk at the break of dawn.”

  
Wheatley half climbed, half fell down Foxglove before patting its leg and wandering back to Chell’s  _ -their? Was it theirs now?- _ house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading this chapter, and if you read my small blurb at the beginning double thanks! If you didn't that's cool too. However, if you did enjoy, I would really appreciate if you expressed this through either kudos or comments. A big thank you to Lady_Isludis, QueenHeadphones, NyaNyaDragon20XX and the one anon that did leave kudos, and another thank you to Lady_Isludis for giving me a comment. I really do appreciate everyone who took time out of their day to read my fic, whether or not they left feedback. Thank you all so much! See you next Friday! Hopefully.


	5. Good Morning Chell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm late. However I have a reason, as I have mentioned, I am taking a college Pre-Cal class and this Wednesday my teacher gave us a take home quiz. This was fine. However, the first problem had a typo, making it unsolvable. So I spent about 3 days trying to solve an unsolvable problem, which kept me from finishing the chapter. Fun right? Then sometime Friday evening I email my professor, telling him that I can not prove this trig identity, and when I graphed it the equations did not share a graph, so I think there might be something wrong. He replies, telling me to send my work so he can try to identify where I could have made a mistake. So I go through my four or five pages of work, trying to find what I actually ended up using. I did find a mistake in my work, I corrected it and worked back down only to discover, it was still unsolvable, mind you this was around 11 at night. I was fairly upset, so I went to finish up the chapter and did not finish (I try to get to bed by at least 1). The next morning I check my email again, planning to email a picture of my newly organized work, and what is it that I find? An email! From my professor! Do you know what it says? It says there's a typo! On the first problem! The one I'd been stuck on! For three days! I finished it up pretty quickly, it helps to have a solvable problem doesn't it? I mean, don't get me wrong. I was relieved, but I want my weekend back.

    Chell came down the stairs with a slight spring in her step. She had slept in, but not by that much, she still had things to do. As she crossed into the kitchen she saw Wheatley, leaning over the table, dozing. One hand holding the handle of a half empty cup of tea and the other propping up his head. She had a feeling she knew why he was here.

 

She started taking out the ingredients to make dough and continued her morning routine, turning the radio on low as she began to work. She could ask him what was wrong to make sure and he would inevitably tell her whether or not he wanted to, the dork was an awful liar, but she figured he’d tell her if he needed someone. It was probably about the woman that kept appearing in his dreams. The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed that the woman was another employee of _that place_ Wheatley had known back when he was first human, and something here had triggered her memory in him. What it was was questionable, but she figured it had to be something.

 

She continued to ponder this as she kneaded the dough, arms working in practiced motions while she gazed at her housemate’s sleeping form. He looked rather peaceful despite the awkward position. It was at this moment that Wheatley’s hand slipped out from under his head, causing him to wake up, panic, and spill cold tea over himself, the table, and the floor.

 

Chell was about to go over to help him when he stumbled up. “I’m fine. I- I’ve got this. We’re all good- We’re all good here.” He glanced at Chell, fixing his skewed glasses. “Chell? What are you doing up so early?” She only raised an eyebrow as she watched Wheatley’s gaze turn to the window behind her. “I guess it’s not early anymore… I mus- I must have fallen asleep. My tea went cold!” He looked down at the spilled tea and toppled tea mug on the table.

 

He glanced up at Chell. “I was going to make you a cup too, but it was early, so I didn’t think you’d be awake and I should probably change my shirt. It’s covered in tea, so…” He began absentmindedly heading towards the stairs. Chell cleared her throat and Wheatley looked up at her. She tilted her head towards the mess at the table. “Ah, yes, I should probably clean that up first shouldn’t I? Probably just get more clothes dirty if I changed first.” He nodded, heading to grab a towel.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, sorry for the delay. Hopefully I will be able to get the next chapter out by Friday. Let's just hope I have no more take home quizzes with typos, yeah? Anyways if you enjoyed please express this through either comments or kudos! I do appreciate everything you guys leave to show your support! Thank you to the other anon who left kudos and thank you once again to Lady_Isludis for leaving yet another comment, I really enjoyed answering your questions. Anyways see you next Friday, hopefully.


	6. Back in the Hole

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two hours late, not horrid. I hope you enjoy this chapter, the next one should be out next Friday!

Wheatley braced for impact as he plummeted downwards.  _ CLANG! _ The long fall boots hit the sloped floor before sliding out from under him.  _ Thud! _ “Oww…” Wheatley stood, rubbing his tail bone lightly. “That hurt. A lot.” He looked up and immediately had the urge to curl in on himself. In front of him was a long hallway, with doors down it, it was an officelike area, but still definitely  _ that place _ . There was really no mistaking it, it had that stale smell of recycled air and was dimly lit with lightbulbs that flickered because they hadn’t been changed in who knows how long.

 

“Why did I do this?” He whispered. “I’m back here and this time I don’t have Chell to get me out.” His eyes darted around the hallway as he ran his hands through his hair. “I really am a moron. I came down here and for what? Some lady I don’t even know, that’s what and now I’m never getting out. I’m going to die here.” He slid to the floor, bringing his knees to his chest, toes curling. He closed his eyes and began to rock back and forth, breathing shaky. “I’m going to die here. I’ll never see sunlight or Foxglove or Eaden or Garret. Oh God, I’ll never see Chell!” He bit his lip as his eyes began to water.

 

_ Chell wouldn’t want you to give up. _ “She wouldn’t.” He muttered.  _ She wouldn’t want you to not at least try to get out. _ Wheatley began to get to his feet. “She wouldn’t.” Wiping his eyes and brushing down his clothes, Wheatley strode determinedly back to the hole and peered up, he swallowed, sunlight barely reached the bottom. He reached up to the top of the nearest panel, trying to find a hold. If he could climb out he could forget the whole thing and go home, but his fingers just... kept… slipping! “There’s no way I can get back up there,” He took a few steps back. “is there?”

 

He turned back to the hallway, swallowing. He took one hesitant step into the dimness. Letting out a breath he took another. Then another. Slowly he began walking down the hallway, peering at the doors, reading the labels. ‘Research and Development’, ‘Break Room - Do not overstay your break!’, ‘Meeting Room 13’, ‘Storage Room 7’, ‘Filing’, and countless others. Wheatley mouthed the words as he passed. ‘Core Development and Testing’. Wheatley stopped, turning to the door, he stepped up and touched the plaque. Running his fingers over the letters, he mouthed the words again.

 

He glanced back down the hall, heart thumping. It wouldn’t hurt to see what was in there would it, who he’d been before? Was that even in there? Did he even really want to know? He did and he didn’t at the same time and that fact alone confused him more than the question itself. He swallowed, clenching his fists-  _ When did his hands get so sweaty?- _ , it’d just take a minute. Just a minute to look around and then get out. He placed his hand on the doorknob, taking a deep breath he tugged the door open. It was empty, nothing on the walls, no desks, no cabinets, no computers. All that was there was a single deactivated core, sitting dejected on the floor.

 

Wheatley shivered,  _-Why was it empty?-_ stepping forwards he tapped the core with his foot. Nothing happened. He kneeled down in front of it, taking it into his hands. He turned it over, “EOS Project.” He hummed. It wasn’t him. It was just another core, left there to rot, a fear he had often had as a core. Failed cores were usually destroyed, parts scrapped for new projects. How he didn't end up in that boat he didn't know. He gently set the core back down, giving it a light pat. “Rest well little buddy.” He whispered, stepping back out of the room. He turned back down the hallway, somehow more determined to make it out... and if possible find Ruby along the way.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and if you enjoyed please express this through kudos and or comments they mean a lot to me. Thank you Samurott1999 for leaving kudos. And with that said I'm going to bed. It's almost 1:20 in the morning. See you next Friday, hopefully.


	7. A Familiar Face, Well Core

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I know I missed last week's update. However, this was because I was in Hawaii! My mom's dad (my Papa) was born on the island on Oahu and for his 70th birthday he wanted to take his children (my mom, my aunt, and my uncle, who have been to Hawaii before), their spouses (my dad and uncle's wife, who have not been to Hawaii), and his grandchildren (me, my sister, and my uncle's two children) to Hawaii to meet his family living there and to teach us about our Hawaiian heritage. It was a fun trip, but the flight literally took off at like 2 am Friday and after that I barely got time to do anything online. But I got to see a turtle!
> 
> *UPDATE*  
> I recently realized that for whatever reason, this chapter was posted without formatting... It should be fixed now! Sorry for any reading inconvenience!

Wheatley continued walking, turning with the corridor that didn’t seem to end. As he continued he began to hear a noise. He sped up slightly, it sounded like a voice! “Maybe it’s Ruby.” He muttered. However, as he got closer he began to identify what it was. Screaming or maybe just yelling. And in the moment, he couldn’t help but hear  _ Her _ in his head.  _ “Android hell is a real place where you will be sent on the first sign of disobedience.” _ He shivered.

 

Wheatley now stood in front of the door, unlabelled, once again in the familiar battle of working up the nerve to do something. He curled and uncurled his fists in fast bursts. He turned the knob and the yelling stopped. He gently opened the door and peeked inside. It was a large room, walls lined with computers. The center was taken up by a massive model of the solar system. He looked at the planets, hanging, revolving slowly around the sun. Letting go of the door he stepped inside.

 

“Space?” Came a quisitive voice.

 

Wheatley jumped, looking around for the source. “Who- Who’s there?!” He called, backing towards the door. There was a whirring noise from the ceiling and raising his eyes he saw a core travel its way around a management rail from behind the solar system. “Space?” It asked again.

 

“Kevin?!” Wheatley cried. The yellow eyed core gave an enthusiastic nodded exclaiming. “We were in space!” “Yeah! We were, crazy right? Oh man alive, am I glad to see you.” Wheatley walked closer, so he was almost standing under the core. “How did you get down here?” he asked. Kevin was silent. “I found space!” he said excitedly, turning back to the solar system. “Researching space!”

 

“Right… So Kevin, I... I don’t know if you know this, but I didn’t actually come here for no reason.” Wheatley began, rocking back on his heels. “Space?” Came the reply. “No, no. I didn’t come here for space. Not that space isn’t cool, really it is. But I was actually following this lady in a red coat. Do you know where she might be? And if you don’t, that’s fine! Totally fine, but if you don’t you wouldn’t happen to know a way out would you?” He looked up hopefully at the core, who was silent.

 

“I could always take you with me if you-” “Mars.” Kevin said, turning suddenly to the door. “What?” “Mars.” the core repeated, looking down at Wheatley. “That’s the red one isn’t it?” Wheatley asked, somewhat unsure of himself. “Mars!” Kevin said, darting toward the wall above the door. As he approached it a panel opened, letting him into the hallway. “Kevin?! Where are you going?!” Wheatley dashed out into the hallway to see the core in question at the end of the hall, humming enthusiastically. “Space!” Kevin called, turning to the left disappearing from view. Wheatley could only chase after, wondering where Kevin was taking him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyways thank you to everyone who's stuck through with me so far and took time out of their day to read this. I hope you enjoy reading this as much I as enjoy writing this and if you do enjoy please tell through either kudos or comments! I appreciate all of them. The next update should be on schedule. So see you next Friday hopefully!
> 
> *UPDATE*  
> I recently realized that for whatever reason, this chapter was posted without formatting... It should be fixed now! Sorry for any reading inconvenience!


	8. The Red Queen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter, another chapter. Anyways I'm right on time! Whoo hoo!

Eos darted into the large room, taking a kneeling bow in front of the enormous machine in front of her. “My Queen-” She began. 

 

“You’re late.”

 

“Yes, I’m sorry my Queen.”

 

“I’m beginning to wonder if you were built with a faulty clock system.” The Queen turned to look at her. Eos didn’t reply, simply keeping her eyes trained on the floor, so the Queen continued. “What did you see up there anyways?”

 

Eos took a deep breath, pausing. “I… I saw a man, Alice, the Intelligence Dampening Sphere that escaped a year ago.” She reported, still keeping her eyes trained to the tiles in front of her. “What.” The Queen hissed. “Yes my Queen. He has been appearing for a few days now.” Eos answered. The large machine hummed.

 

“Has he seen you?”

 

There was a pause.

 

“No my Queen.”

 

Another hum came from the Queen.

 

“Don’t let him.”

 

“Of course my Queen.”

 

The Queen turned her large eye away. “You are excused.”

 

“Thank you my Queen.”

 

Eos stood, turning swiftly away. At the doorway she was stopped. “Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, some corrupted cores have escaped, do make sure they are returned to their proper containment chambers by tomorrow. That is, of course, if you are actually smart enough to get it done that fast.”

 

Eos closed her eyes, resisting the urge to clench her fists. “I’ll see that it gets done my Queen. Is there anything else you require of me?” She stated, irritation masked behind the monotone answers she always gave. Receiving no answer she turned to look back, the Queen had already returned to her work. She slipped out the door and down the hall, red lab coat flaring behind her. She had work to do.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys thanks for reading this chapter! If you enjoyed please express this through either kudos or comments! Thank you bunnycheer36 and a third anon for giving kudos, I truly appreciate them. Now, I'm going to bed. I helped my cousins move today and will be continuing tomorrow. *sigh* Well see you guys next Friday, hopefully.


	9. Welcome to Mars

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I'm a day late, but here is the chapter. Hopefully next Friday it will arrive on time. However, school season shall arrive soon, this means that updates might not be as regular depending on homework loads and such. But here's to hoping on steady Friday uploads!

Wheatley had been following Kevin for what felt like hours, the scenery had changed of course, the hallways were now more open, the tiled wall whiter and shinier, the lights brighter, the doors farther apart. While it was a welcome change of pace it was also rather unsettling. It seemed like they were getting closer to the test chambers, he couldn’t be exactly sure, he no longer had a map of the place in his head, but the queasy feeling in his stomach wasn’t exactly helping.

 

“Are you sure you know where we’re going mate?” He called to the core ahead. “Space!” It chirped happily back. “Yeah… Space.” Wheatley mumbled, running a hand down his face and sighing into his palm. “How far it is from where you’re taking me exactly?” He asked, taking a few quick steps so he was just behind the core. “Mars!” Kevin span on his monorail, giving a pleased hum. “We’re at Mars!”

 

“I’m pretty sure we’re not mate.” Wheatley deadpanned, scanning the hallway, eyes landing on the single door in front of them. “Space!” The core called dashing through an open panel above the door, Wheatley rushed to follow door clicking behind him. It seemed to be a monitoring room with a few tables with screens running data he couldn’t understand, with the flat bits,  _ keyboards _ , sitting in front of them. The swivel chairs had been pushed in neatly under the desk. Running his hand over the back of one he was surprised to find there was no dust.

 

There was a large window on one wall, he knew it to be frosted on the other side. Before Wheatley could approach a voice sounded. “For goodness sake Rick, you need to get down! I have a deadline!”

 

“Sorry pretty lady, but adventure calls!”

 

“An adventure where?! You’re not leaving. I’ve shut down all the panels in this room, they won’t budge, so you leave with me or you don’t leave at all.”

 

“Seems like you’ve never met a true adventurer before! A true adventurer never gives up!”

 

“Look Rick, I will leave you here, don’t think that I won’t. Contrary to your belief you’re not the only core I need to catch.”

 

“That’s alright, you just take a lady break.”

 

Wheatley stepped up to the glass, looking down at the chamber. It was a solid white chamber, and to the side was the red coat lady! Looking up at the adventure core? Wheatley stared for a moment before, in a rather instinctive move, knocking on the glass.

 

Eos turned her head, staring at the frosted side of the glass, behind she could see the silhouette of a tall, gangly man that quickly darted ungracefully out of sight. She really only knew one man with that kind of frame, and even though she hoped it wasn't, she was pretty sure it was exactly who she thought it was.

 

“You know what Rick? You stay here, I’ll be right back. If the room starts to get to you drop from the monorail and yell. I have other...  _ business _ to attend to.”

 

“Alright, you go take your lady break. I’ll be right here when you get back.” Eos only sighed and rolled her eyes as she walked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone thank you for reading this chapter and if you enjoyed please express this through leaving either comments or kudos! I appreciate everything you send. If you want updates on update dates and other stuff I would recommend reading the little beginning blurb thing. Anyways see next Friday! Hopefully.


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